For generations, the frogs have croaked during the mating season in the garden of their house in the village of Grignols, an isolated hamlet in Dordogne.

But their love-making antics proved too noisy for the neighbours, who filed a legal complaint to remove the pond.

A bailiff duly investigated and found the frogs croaked at 63 decibels - the equivalent of a washing machine or vacuum cleaner.

Lazy Tree Frog Spotted in Back Garden

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"We have been dragged before the courts because on certain nights, for about two minutes, a few frogs communicate with each other. This is surreal," said Mr Pecheras, a retired restaurant owner.

The couple won an initial court case in 2012 only to lose in an appeal this month.

"We don't understand what has caused this sudden U-turn. Our pond has been in our village's land register for the past century. And now we have to get rid of it because frogs croak in the mating season," said Mr Pecheras, who has spent €10,000 (£7,800) in legal fees to defend the amphibians.

The court gave the couple four months to fill the pond, but the Pecheras are considering taking their case to France's supreme court.

This not the first time a French tribunal has taken exception to frogs' noisy love-making.

City dwellers intending to join the 300 inhabitants of Cesny-aux-Vignes, 12 miles from Caen in Normandy, were asked to cohabit with crowing cockerels, braying donkeys or chiming church bells “without complaint.”

“City folk must listen with respect, if they cannot listen with pleasure, to the sounds of nature and wildlife that still exists,” wrote Jacques Bischoff, the mayor.

He signed off praising “the song of the nightingale and the turtle dove or the shrieking of the owl”.